Champaign County teen to be tried as an adult in woman's death

Saturday

Dec 16, 2017 at 1:47 PMDec 16, 2017 at 6:26 PM

Holly Zachariah The Columbus Dispatch @hollyzachariah

A 15-year-old who police say confessed to killing the woman he considered his mother will face trial as an adult after a Champaign County grand jury indicted him Friday on charges of aggravated murder and murder.

Donovan Nicholas called 911 on April 6 and told a dispatcher that it was actually his alter-personality — a character named "Jeff" who lived inside him, one patterned after a popular internet horror character called "Jeff the Killer" — who killed Heidi Fay Taylor.

Taylor, 40, was the longtime partner of Nicholas' father, Shane, and was considered the boy's stepmother. Nicholas was 14 when Taylor died; he turned 15 in July.

Nicholas initially was charged with aggravated murder as a juvenile but, following several hearings, Champaign County Juvenile Court Judge Lori L. Reisinger ruled last month that he was not able to be monitored or rehabilitated in the state's juvenile-justice system. She released jurisdiction of the case, clearing the way for Prosecutor Kevin Talebi to try Nicholas as an adult in Common Pleas Court.

An arraignment is set for Tuesday, according to the Urbana Daily Citizen.

In previous juvenile-court testimony, investigators said that Nicholas confessed to detectives that he hid behind a door and called Taylor downstairs. When she came, he stabbed her, they said.

Nicholas said he and Taylor fought over the knife, and that she ran from him to try to get her cellphone to call for help. He said he got ahead of her upstairs, and when she fell on the bed, he pulled his father's handgun from a dresser drawer, loaded it and shot her.

Detective Joshua Welty, of the Champaign County sheriff's office, described how a violent, fight-to-the-death struggle happened in the family's rural home the night that Taylor was killed. He said Taylor had been stabbed at least 62 times, including many defensive wounds on her hands and arms as she tried to ward off her killer.

At that same hearing, Nicholas's biological mother attended court for the first time and asked the judge for permission to visit her son in juvenile detention, where he has been held since his arrest right after he called 911. Judge Reisinger denied the request, saying the woman had not been a steady presence in Nicholas' life and would only add to his confusion.

hzachariah@dispatch.com

@hollyzachariah

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